Fic: "Atlantis to Elvis"
Title: Atlantis to Elvis
Author: aibhinn
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Summary: Sometimes history needs a little help, particularly when Elvis is involved.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own any of these characters, because if I did, canon would look something very like one of my stories.
Author's note: A very, very late entry for the "Anywhere But Cardiff" ficathon on time_and_chips. Apologies for the lateness. Prompt: "The sinking of Atlantis, five minutes after the return of Elvis." You can't blame me for playing with things just a bit, really, can you? Many thanks to my betas for their patience!
The Doctor and Rose emerged from the TARDIS cautiously and glanced around. "Looks like we're in some kind of storage room," Rose observed, running a finger over a vertical support beam for a long, cram-packed shelving unit-only one of a dozen or so in sight.
"Full marks for observation," the Doctor said with a grin. She smacked him lightly with the back of her hand, and he protested, "Ow!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby." She picked up an oddly-shaped piece of metal-obviously a part for something mechanical, though she couldn't have said what-and turned it over in her hand, then put it back down again. "Thought you said we were going to Atlantis."
"We did," the Doctor said. He picked up the part she'd put down, slid his specs on, and examined it closely, brows knitting.
Rose put her hands on her hips. "We did not. I know Atlantis was meant to be the most advanced ancient civilisation of all time, but I doubt they had tinned food and bits of mechanical devices in their store-rooms."
"Oh, you wanted that Atlantis?" the Doctor said in a tone of surprise, looking up from the part he held with eyes that were wide with innocence. "You should've said!"
"Well, what other sort of Atlantis is there?" she demanded, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor nodded toward the shelf behind her. She turned to look and saw the words HMS ATLANTIS stencilled onto a row of boxes. "She's a luxury liner in the twenty-third century. Since your requirements for new destinations usually include indoor plumbing, I thought this was more likely to pique your interest than a Mediterranean island nation destroyed by a volcano. Though we could get back into the TARDIS and have a look, if you want."
Rose had to admit to herself, a luxury liner had its advantages. "No, we're here now. Might as well explore. Besides," she added, tongue between her teeth, "I've always fancied going on a cruise."
"Well, then." The Doctor put the part back where Rose had found it, slid his specs back into his jacket pocket, and offered her his arm. "Shall we explore the ship, Miss Tyler?"
"Definitely!" Rose grinned and slid her hand over his bicep, and the two of them exited the storage cupboard.
***
The Doctor took a moment to hack into a terminal in the deserted corridor, doing a quick data input. "What're you doing?" Rose asked.
"Getting us a cabin." Another few keystrokes, and he grinned. "Oh, perfect. Seems there's a first-class cabin with a balcony whose reservations went unfilled. Or, rather, the person who made the reservation never checked in. Let's just change that." He typed away furiously for a moment, then pulled out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at a little slot in the wall. It ejected a card, like an ATM, and the Doctor took it with a grin and held it between two fingers, waving it in triumph. "Key card," he said. "This is our all-access card; it lets us into our room, pays for anything we want to buy, and is connected to my very own credit card account."
"Like you have a credit card," Rose said, grinning.
"Of course I have a credit card!" The Doctor's expression was wounded, and so was his tone of voice. "You don't think the number I've swiped across time and space is fake, do you? It's an account linked to multiple types of access all over the galaxy."
"So, when you use the sonic screwdriver to access ATMs, you're actually getting money from your own accounts?" Rose was surprised.
"Absolutely! Not hard to have a lot of money when you're a time-traveller, you know. Go back in time and make a few investments, show up a few decades later to register as the legitimate heir to the man who created the original account, and just keep the money going. I've got millions. Over a billion, by this point in history. And it's perfectly legal."
Rose grinned. She couldn't resist. "'For everything else, there's MasterCard,'" she quoted.
The Doctor looked up in alarm. "Oh, no, no, no! Not him, please. DoctorCard maybe, but not MasterCard. We certainly don't need more trouble than we find on our own." He punched another couple of buttons, and a second card ejected through the slot. This one he handed to Rose before closing out the program he was in. "Do you want to find our cabin right away or do a bit of exploring first?" he asked with a bright smile.
"Cabin," she said firmly. "We should move the TARDIS there before someone comes into the supply cupboard where she's parked. Can we go back to get her now, or do you need to have been there first?"
"I can get us there," the Doctor assured her breezily. "No worries. I could land us on the top of the spire of St Paul's, if I wanted to."
"Glad you don't, then," Rose said with a cheeky grin. "Because if you missed, I really wouldn't fancy sliding off the dome."
"Oi! I wouldn't miss that badly. Besides, the TARDIS wouldn't let us get really hurt. In fact, I know for certain that-"
He broke off, frowning and cocking his head as though he were trying to hear something. "What?" Rose asked.
"Listen. Do you hear that?"
She frowned as well, closing her eyes to concentrate better. "Running feet?" she ventured.
"Lots of running feet. Dozens, maybe more. Something big's happening." The blinding grin was back, and he held out his hand to her. "Want to find out what it is?"
She clasped his hand with an answering grin, and they took off down the corridor.
Everyone seemed to be converging on the enormous four-storey solarium at the centre of the ship. It was the central hub of the ship; everything branched off from it. Right now a huge screen, at least twenty feet square, hung over the railings of the top two storeys. People were gathering along the balconies and in a huge mass on the floor, staring upward. It looked like some sort of breaking news, Rose thought.
She and the Doctor joined a group on the third storey balcony, looking right across at the screen. "What's going on?" he asked an older lady in a violently colourful flower-print dress.
"Oh," she said, and Rose realised she was on the verge of happy tears. "Oh, they've just announced that Elvis has returned! He touched down just about half an hour ago, and they've gone in to do tests and make sure he's healthy. If he's found to be all right, they'll let him off the ship tonight."
Rose startled at the name. "Elvis?" she repeated. Her mind was filled with images of an aging musician in a white sequined outfit, the shirt open to his navel.
The woman looked at her as though she were a bit thick. "Elvis Cameron," she said.
"Blimey!" the Doctor said. "The only surviving member of the Europa colonisation team? Bringing his friends and his wife home in body bags after a five-year trip there and back?"
"What other Elvis Cameron is there?" the woman sniffed.
"Well, well, well! Fancy getting here in time for that, Rose!" He grinned brilliantly at her. She opened her mouth to make some comment about stupid apes and being lost, but stopped when his face fell into a frown. "Hang on-if he's back, then that means this is the start of-"
A violent shudder rocked the ship, tilting it a good twenty degrees to port. The air was filled with startled shrieks and cries of pain as people lost their balance and toppled into one another, grabbing hold of whatever was handy to try to stay upright. Rose managed not to cry out, but she did clutch at the Doctor, who seemed to have no problem keeping his footing.
"-World War III," the Doctor finished grimly.
"What?" Rose yelped.
"Come on, we've got to get back to the TARDIS." He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the crowd, running up the slanting deck towards the corridor through which they'd come. "If we don't get her out, she'll end up on the bottom of the ocean."
"The bottom of-the ship's sinking?" Rose demanded. "How? Why?"
"It's been torpedoed," the Doctor told her. The ship tilted another degree or two and he let go Rose's hand to grab her by the waist to stop her feet slipping out from under her.
Staggering up the last bit of incline, they made it through the door and into the corridor, where they could support themselves against the wall and run a little more easily. "The East African Confederacy has been protesting Western energy usage for a couple of hundred years now," the Doctor went on. "Sometime this year-probably within the next month or so-the last of the fossil fuels will run out. This won't be so bad for Western culture, which has been developing alternative fuels for centuries, but third-world countries are far behind the times. They've been trying to get the West to help them upgrade for years and years, but the West has had other things on its mind recently-specifically, the exploratory trip to Europa. The Confederacy is a little annoyed that the plight of its millions of people is being ignored while the rest of the world watches a doomed space exploration team."
"What is it that the Confederacy wants?" Rose asked, stumbling a bit but managing to catch herself. The screams had been replaced by shouting voices, and then that was replaced by an artificially-calm voice over the loudspeaker:
This is the Captain speaking. This is an emergency evacuation procedure. Please proceed to the nearest lifeboat station in an orderly fashion.
"Are we going to stop the ship sinking, then?" Rose asked as they stumbled toward the door to the storage cupboard. Luckily it was on the port side of the hallway, or they'd've never got in.
As it was, when the Doctor had opened the lock with the sonic screwdriver, they'd been incredibly lucky; the shelving units had fallen over like dominoes, but the TARDIS had escaped potential damage by the simple expedient of having parked herself in the pathway between rows of shelves. They'd fallen against the wall to either side of her; she was unharmed. The two of them half-ran, half-slid to her and stumbled inside.
It was strange to be on flat ground inside when Rose knew the floor the TARDIS was sitting on was tilted so steeply. The Doctor shut the door and bolted to the console, flipping switches. The time rotor started up, and Rose heard the familiar grinding noise of dematerialisation.
"What about all those people on the ship?" she demanded.
"Not to worry!" he said cheerfully. "A few of them may get a bit damp, but that's all. There's more than enough lifeboats for everyone-the ship wasn't even fully booked-and all the passengers and crew will get out just fine. Rescue helicopters are on the way to evacuate anyone who's been injured, and an aircraft carrier with her escorts has been diverted to pick up everyone else. Everyone survives, Rose. No casualties, even without us." He spun a dial, flipped a few more switches. "We're going to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
"The what?" Now she was really lost. "Why're we going there?"
He glanced at her, his face sober. "Because that's where Elvis Cameron is. It's him we've got to save."
The TARDIS shuddered to a stop, but before Rose could ask anything, the Doctor was bounding through the door. She followed perforce, only to find him stopped just outside the TARDIS, facing a pair of rifles pointed at them, held by very impressive guards in military uniforms.
The Doctor didn't seem the least intimidated. "Right," he said. "No time to waste." He held up the psychic paper so the guards could see it. "The East African Confederacy has already torpedoed the HMS Atlantis, but you can bet it's not a cruise liner they're after; they want to hit a much more important target. They're going to want to take out Elvis himself. We're here to facilitate his safety, and you're going to be part of that."
Whatever was on the psychic paper must've been impressive, for halfway through the Doctor's speech, the two guards had lowered their weapons and snapped to attention. "Orders, sir?" the right-hand guard asked.
The Doctor's eyes flickered to the man's rank insignia and nametag, briefly. "Lieutenant Rickert-" He pronounced it the American way, loo-TEN-nant, rather than the British way, lef-TEN-nant. "-you and your comrade Lieutenant Reed are to set up a twenty-four-hour guard all the way around the Lisa Marie. Full alert, guards changed at four-hour intervals. Another set of guards at the perimeter, and full-spectrum cameras on at all times. If a mouse runs across that tarmac, I want you to know about it. The Confederacy is coming after him, right now, and they will stop at nothing to try to kill him right in the middle of what should be the safest place in the country save the Pentagon and the White House."
Rickert looked troubled. "Sir, I don't have that kind of authority," he said doubtfully.
"Then find someone who does!" the Doctor snapped. "Or do you want the man killed on your watch? Move!"
The lieutenant reached for his earpiece and began reporting in, turning away as he spoke. Rose didn't understand much of what he said-it was in military-speak, which might as well have been complete gibberish as far as she was concerned-but she did hear the words 'NATO intelligence' and 'assassination attempt,' as well as something that sounded like 'Umbra clearance.'" A moment later he turned back around. "They're assembling, sir. Additional guards should be here within ten minutes."
The Doctor had been scanning the area visually, chin set and brow furrowed. He swung back round to look at Rickert. "Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant. Meantime, the two of you had better get back to the entrance to the ship before-"
Motion caught the corner of Rose's eye, and she reacted without thinking, grabbing the Doctor by the back of his trench coat and hauling him against the TARDIS. A bullet whistled through the air where they'd been, and another hit the far side of the TARDIS herself.
"Get down!" Rickert yelled as he dropped to the ground and crawled to join the Doctor and Rose behind the TARDIS. Reed did the same. The rat-a-tat of automatic weapons fire echoed across the runway, accompanied by the sound of bullets impacting wood and tarmac. Rickert reached up to key on his radio headset again. "This is Zulu Juliet one-niner-four under attack, repeat, we are under attack! Request immediate backup!"
"Copy, Zulu Juliet one-niner-four," a crackly voice said over the radio. "Backup scrambling. Report enemy numbers."
"Can't tell for sure, but I know I can hear two submachine guns," Rickert said grimly. His buddy hadn't said a word, just knelt on the concrete and kept firing around the corner of the TARDIS.
"Three, two with AK-907M submachine guns and one with a radio and some sort of laser sight," the Doctor reported. Rose looked at him in shock. He never had anything to do with guns, never.
He caught her eye and winked. "Knowing about them is one thing," he whispered. "Using them is quite another."
Rickert repeated the information to whoever he was talking to. "They're hiding in a drainage ditch on the edge of the runway," he added.
"Not the smartest place for them to be in Florida," the Doctor observed to Rose. "Certainly not here."
"Why not?" Rose asked, flinching as another bullet hit the TARDIS. From luxury liner to fire-fight in the space of a few minutes. Life with the Doctor was never boring.
"The grounds of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are a wildlife preserve," the Doctor told her.
"But what does that-"
A high-pitched scream of terror-a man's scream-interrupted them from the direction of their attackers. The gunfire abruptly stopped, then started up again-but not aimed at them.
"Wildlife in Florida, Rose," the Doctor said. "Alligators love these swamps, and drainage ditches are some of their favourite places to sunbathe. The water gets quite warm in the sun. Though it's even more likely that one of them got a cottonmouth up a trouser leg. Deadly poisonous snake, those."
Rickert's radio crackled to life while Rose gaped at the Doctor. "Zulu Juliet one-niner-four, backup inbound," the disembodied voice said. "ETA two minutes. Report."
Rickert reached up to toggle on his headset again. "Seems some of the local wildlife's taken an interest in our attackers. We heard a scream, and current fire seems to be aimed near them, not at us."
"That's a damn shame, Lieutenant," the voice on the radio said dryly. "Your orders: when safe to do so, relocate to the Lisa Marie and guard the door from inside."
"Copy that. Relocating now." Rickert looked at the two of them. "You gonna be okay?"
"Oh yeah. We can go out the way we came in." The Doctor patted the TARDIS affectionately. "But don't tell anyone how we got here or left. Need-to-know. Top secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you, all that."
"Yes sir." The Lieutenant saluted, then he and Lieutenant Reed ran across the open concrete toward the spaceship that sat silently fifty yards away. The Doctor watched until they'd climbed up into the ship and closed the hatch, then pulled out his key and opened the TARDIS door. "In," he said. "We don't want to be here when the backup arrives."
Rose was only too happy to comply. She stumbled in and over to the jump seat, where she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as the Doctor got the TARDIS moving. Once they were in flight, he came over to her, frowning. "You all right?"
"Fine. A little shaken up. Don't think I've ever been shot at before."
"Probably not, but there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"
The Doctor's dismissive tone was at odds with the twinkle in his eyes, and she couldn't help but laugh. He grinned and climbed onto the seat beside her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her tight into his side. She snuggled there.
"So does Elvis survive, then?" she asked.
"Oh, yes. The war rages on for another three years, but he survives just fine. And ten years later, he's elected to the Presidency. Under his influence, Congress not only balances the budget, but finishes paying off the deficit that had built up in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The value of the American dollar skyrockets until it's nearly on a par with the British pound, and he uses the budget surplus to finance the creation of third-world solar and wind power plants, as well as building factories for alternative-fuelled vehicles. And the year he dies, the base on Europa is finally established and the first extraterrestrial life is found in the water oceans that are beneath the ice crust. Just coral-like creatures, nothing intelligent, but it's a major moment in the history of the human race. All made possible by that one man."
Rose smiled against his coat. "It was worth getting shot at, then."
"Oh, yes. Especially as nobody was actually hit. But-" He pulled away slightly and grinned down at her. "You do realise we've seen the sinking of Atlantis and the return of Elvis, all on the same day!"
She smacked him lightly with the back of her hand, but couldn't help joining in his laughter.
Author: aibhinn
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Summary: Sometimes history needs a little help, particularly when Elvis is involved.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own any of these characters, because if I did, canon would look something very like one of my stories.
Author's note: A very, very late entry for the "Anywhere But Cardiff" ficathon on time_and_chips. Apologies for the lateness. Prompt: "The sinking of Atlantis, five minutes after the return of Elvis." You can't blame me for playing with things just a bit, really, can you? Many thanks to my betas for their patience!
The Doctor and Rose emerged from the TARDIS cautiously and glanced around. "Looks like we're in some kind of storage room," Rose observed, running a finger over a vertical support beam for a long, cram-packed shelving unit-only one of a dozen or so in sight.
"Full marks for observation," the Doctor said with a grin. She smacked him lightly with the back of her hand, and he protested, "Ow!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby." She picked up an oddly-shaped piece of metal-obviously a part for something mechanical, though she couldn't have said what-and turned it over in her hand, then put it back down again. "Thought you said we were going to Atlantis."
"We did," the Doctor said. He picked up the part she'd put down, slid his specs on, and examined it closely, brows knitting.
Rose put her hands on her hips. "We did not. I know Atlantis was meant to be the most advanced ancient civilisation of all time, but I doubt they had tinned food and bits of mechanical devices in their store-rooms."
"Oh, you wanted that Atlantis?" the Doctor said in a tone of surprise, looking up from the part he held with eyes that were wide with innocence. "You should've said!"
"Well, what other sort of Atlantis is there?" she demanded, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor nodded toward the shelf behind her. She turned to look and saw the words HMS ATLANTIS stencilled onto a row of boxes. "She's a luxury liner in the twenty-third century. Since your requirements for new destinations usually include indoor plumbing, I thought this was more likely to pique your interest than a Mediterranean island nation destroyed by a volcano. Though we could get back into the TARDIS and have a look, if you want."
Rose had to admit to herself, a luxury liner had its advantages. "No, we're here now. Might as well explore. Besides," she added, tongue between her teeth, "I've always fancied going on a cruise."
"Well, then." The Doctor put the part back where Rose had found it, slid his specs back into his jacket pocket, and offered her his arm. "Shall we explore the ship, Miss Tyler?"
"Definitely!" Rose grinned and slid her hand over his bicep, and the two of them exited the storage cupboard.
***
The Doctor took a moment to hack into a terminal in the deserted corridor, doing a quick data input. "What're you doing?" Rose asked.
"Getting us a cabin." Another few keystrokes, and he grinned. "Oh, perfect. Seems there's a first-class cabin with a balcony whose reservations went unfilled. Or, rather, the person who made the reservation never checked in. Let's just change that." He typed away furiously for a moment, then pulled out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at a little slot in the wall. It ejected a card, like an ATM, and the Doctor took it with a grin and held it between two fingers, waving it in triumph. "Key card," he said. "This is our all-access card; it lets us into our room, pays for anything we want to buy, and is connected to my very own credit card account."
"Like you have a credit card," Rose said, grinning.
"Of course I have a credit card!" The Doctor's expression was wounded, and so was his tone of voice. "You don't think the number I've swiped across time and space is fake, do you? It's an account linked to multiple types of access all over the galaxy."
"So, when you use the sonic screwdriver to access ATMs, you're actually getting money from your own accounts?" Rose was surprised.
"Absolutely! Not hard to have a lot of money when you're a time-traveller, you know. Go back in time and make a few investments, show up a few decades later to register as the legitimate heir to the man who created the original account, and just keep the money going. I've got millions. Over a billion, by this point in history. And it's perfectly legal."
Rose grinned. She couldn't resist. "'For everything else, there's MasterCard,'" she quoted.
The Doctor looked up in alarm. "Oh, no, no, no! Not him, please. DoctorCard maybe, but not MasterCard. We certainly don't need more trouble than we find on our own." He punched another couple of buttons, and a second card ejected through the slot. This one he handed to Rose before closing out the program he was in. "Do you want to find our cabin right away or do a bit of exploring first?" he asked with a bright smile.
"Cabin," she said firmly. "We should move the TARDIS there before someone comes into the supply cupboard where she's parked. Can we go back to get her now, or do you need to have been there first?"
"I can get us there," the Doctor assured her breezily. "No worries. I could land us on the top of the spire of St Paul's, if I wanted to."
"Glad you don't, then," Rose said with a cheeky grin. "Because if you missed, I really wouldn't fancy sliding off the dome."
"Oi! I wouldn't miss that badly. Besides, the TARDIS wouldn't let us get really hurt. In fact, I know for certain that-"
He broke off, frowning and cocking his head as though he were trying to hear something. "What?" Rose asked.
"Listen. Do you hear that?"
She frowned as well, closing her eyes to concentrate better. "Running feet?" she ventured.
"Lots of running feet. Dozens, maybe more. Something big's happening." The blinding grin was back, and he held out his hand to her. "Want to find out what it is?"
She clasped his hand with an answering grin, and they took off down the corridor.
Everyone seemed to be converging on the enormous four-storey solarium at the centre of the ship. It was the central hub of the ship; everything branched off from it. Right now a huge screen, at least twenty feet square, hung over the railings of the top two storeys. People were gathering along the balconies and in a huge mass on the floor, staring upward. It looked like some sort of breaking news, Rose thought.
She and the Doctor joined a group on the third storey balcony, looking right across at the screen. "What's going on?" he asked an older lady in a violently colourful flower-print dress.
"Oh," she said, and Rose realised she was on the verge of happy tears. "Oh, they've just announced that Elvis has returned! He touched down just about half an hour ago, and they've gone in to do tests and make sure he's healthy. If he's found to be all right, they'll let him off the ship tonight."
Rose startled at the name. "Elvis?" she repeated. Her mind was filled with images of an aging musician in a white sequined outfit, the shirt open to his navel.
The woman looked at her as though she were a bit thick. "Elvis Cameron," she said.
"Blimey!" the Doctor said. "The only surviving member of the Europa colonisation team? Bringing his friends and his wife home in body bags after a five-year trip there and back?"
"What other Elvis Cameron is there?" the woman sniffed.
"Well, well, well! Fancy getting here in time for that, Rose!" He grinned brilliantly at her. She opened her mouth to make some comment about stupid apes and being lost, but stopped when his face fell into a frown. "Hang on-if he's back, then that means this is the start of-"
A violent shudder rocked the ship, tilting it a good twenty degrees to port. The air was filled with startled shrieks and cries of pain as people lost their balance and toppled into one another, grabbing hold of whatever was handy to try to stay upright. Rose managed not to cry out, but she did clutch at the Doctor, who seemed to have no problem keeping his footing.
"-World War III," the Doctor finished grimly.
"What?" Rose yelped.
"Come on, we've got to get back to the TARDIS." He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the crowd, running up the slanting deck towards the corridor through which they'd come. "If we don't get her out, she'll end up on the bottom of the ocean."
"The bottom of-the ship's sinking?" Rose demanded. "How? Why?"
"It's been torpedoed," the Doctor told her. The ship tilted another degree or two and he let go Rose's hand to grab her by the waist to stop her feet slipping out from under her.
Staggering up the last bit of incline, they made it through the door and into the corridor, where they could support themselves against the wall and run a little more easily. "The East African Confederacy has been protesting Western energy usage for a couple of hundred years now," the Doctor went on. "Sometime this year-probably within the next month or so-the last of the fossil fuels will run out. This won't be so bad for Western culture, which has been developing alternative fuels for centuries, but third-world countries are far behind the times. They've been trying to get the West to help them upgrade for years and years, but the West has had other things on its mind recently-specifically, the exploratory trip to Europa. The Confederacy is a little annoyed that the plight of its millions of people is being ignored while the rest of the world watches a doomed space exploration team."
"What is it that the Confederacy wants?" Rose asked, stumbling a bit but managing to catch herself. The screams had been replaced by shouting voices, and then that was replaced by an artificially-calm voice over the loudspeaker:
This is the Captain speaking. This is an emergency evacuation procedure. Please proceed to the nearest lifeboat station in an orderly fashion.
"Are we going to stop the ship sinking, then?" Rose asked as they stumbled toward the door to the storage cupboard. Luckily it was on the port side of the hallway, or they'd've never got in.
As it was, when the Doctor had opened the lock with the sonic screwdriver, they'd been incredibly lucky; the shelving units had fallen over like dominoes, but the TARDIS had escaped potential damage by the simple expedient of having parked herself in the pathway between rows of shelves. They'd fallen against the wall to either side of her; she was unharmed. The two of them half-ran, half-slid to her and stumbled inside.
It was strange to be on flat ground inside when Rose knew the floor the TARDIS was sitting on was tilted so steeply. The Doctor shut the door and bolted to the console, flipping switches. The time rotor started up, and Rose heard the familiar grinding noise of dematerialisation.
"What about all those people on the ship?" she demanded.
"Not to worry!" he said cheerfully. "A few of them may get a bit damp, but that's all. There's more than enough lifeboats for everyone-the ship wasn't even fully booked-and all the passengers and crew will get out just fine. Rescue helicopters are on the way to evacuate anyone who's been injured, and an aircraft carrier with her escorts has been diverted to pick up everyone else. Everyone survives, Rose. No casualties, even without us." He spun a dial, flipped a few more switches. "We're going to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
"The what?" Now she was really lost. "Why're we going there?"
He glanced at her, his face sober. "Because that's where Elvis Cameron is. It's him we've got to save."
The TARDIS shuddered to a stop, but before Rose could ask anything, the Doctor was bounding through the door. She followed perforce, only to find him stopped just outside the TARDIS, facing a pair of rifles pointed at them, held by very impressive guards in military uniforms.
The Doctor didn't seem the least intimidated. "Right," he said. "No time to waste." He held up the psychic paper so the guards could see it. "The East African Confederacy has already torpedoed the HMS Atlantis, but you can bet it's not a cruise liner they're after; they want to hit a much more important target. They're going to want to take out Elvis himself. We're here to facilitate his safety, and you're going to be part of that."
Whatever was on the psychic paper must've been impressive, for halfway through the Doctor's speech, the two guards had lowered their weapons and snapped to attention. "Orders, sir?" the right-hand guard asked.
The Doctor's eyes flickered to the man's rank insignia and nametag, briefly. "Lieutenant Rickert-" He pronounced it the American way, loo-TEN-nant, rather than the British way, lef-TEN-nant. "-you and your comrade Lieutenant Reed are to set up a twenty-four-hour guard all the way around the Lisa Marie. Full alert, guards changed at four-hour intervals. Another set of guards at the perimeter, and full-spectrum cameras on at all times. If a mouse runs across that tarmac, I want you to know about it. The Confederacy is coming after him, right now, and they will stop at nothing to try to kill him right in the middle of what should be the safest place in the country save the Pentagon and the White House."
Rickert looked troubled. "Sir, I don't have that kind of authority," he said doubtfully.
"Then find someone who does!" the Doctor snapped. "Or do you want the man killed on your watch? Move!"
The lieutenant reached for his earpiece and began reporting in, turning away as he spoke. Rose didn't understand much of what he said-it was in military-speak, which might as well have been complete gibberish as far as she was concerned-but she did hear the words 'NATO intelligence' and 'assassination attempt,' as well as something that sounded like 'Umbra clearance.'" A moment later he turned back around. "They're assembling, sir. Additional guards should be here within ten minutes."
The Doctor had been scanning the area visually, chin set and brow furrowed. He swung back round to look at Rickert. "Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant. Meantime, the two of you had better get back to the entrance to the ship before-"
Motion caught the corner of Rose's eye, and she reacted without thinking, grabbing the Doctor by the back of his trench coat and hauling him against the TARDIS. A bullet whistled through the air where they'd been, and another hit the far side of the TARDIS herself.
"Get down!" Rickert yelled as he dropped to the ground and crawled to join the Doctor and Rose behind the TARDIS. Reed did the same. The rat-a-tat of automatic weapons fire echoed across the runway, accompanied by the sound of bullets impacting wood and tarmac. Rickert reached up to key on his radio headset again. "This is Zulu Juliet one-niner-four under attack, repeat, we are under attack! Request immediate backup!"
"Copy, Zulu Juliet one-niner-four," a crackly voice said over the radio. "Backup scrambling. Report enemy numbers."
"Can't tell for sure, but I know I can hear two submachine guns," Rickert said grimly. His buddy hadn't said a word, just knelt on the concrete and kept firing around the corner of the TARDIS.
"Three, two with AK-907M submachine guns and one with a radio and some sort of laser sight," the Doctor reported. Rose looked at him in shock. He never had anything to do with guns, never.
He caught her eye and winked. "Knowing about them is one thing," he whispered. "Using them is quite another."
Rickert repeated the information to whoever he was talking to. "They're hiding in a drainage ditch on the edge of the runway," he added.
"Not the smartest place for them to be in Florida," the Doctor observed to Rose. "Certainly not here."
"Why not?" Rose asked, flinching as another bullet hit the TARDIS. From luxury liner to fire-fight in the space of a few minutes. Life with the Doctor was never boring.
"The grounds of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are a wildlife preserve," the Doctor told her.
"But what does that-"
A high-pitched scream of terror-a man's scream-interrupted them from the direction of their attackers. The gunfire abruptly stopped, then started up again-but not aimed at them.
"Wildlife in Florida, Rose," the Doctor said. "Alligators love these swamps, and drainage ditches are some of their favourite places to sunbathe. The water gets quite warm in the sun. Though it's even more likely that one of them got a cottonmouth up a trouser leg. Deadly poisonous snake, those."
Rickert's radio crackled to life while Rose gaped at the Doctor. "Zulu Juliet one-niner-four, backup inbound," the disembodied voice said. "ETA two minutes. Report."
Rickert reached up to toggle on his headset again. "Seems some of the local wildlife's taken an interest in our attackers. We heard a scream, and current fire seems to be aimed near them, not at us."
"That's a damn shame, Lieutenant," the voice on the radio said dryly. "Your orders: when safe to do so, relocate to the Lisa Marie and guard the door from inside."
"Copy that. Relocating now." Rickert looked at the two of them. "You gonna be okay?"
"Oh yeah. We can go out the way we came in." The Doctor patted the TARDIS affectionately. "But don't tell anyone how we got here or left. Need-to-know. Top secret. If I told you, I'd have to kill you, all that."
"Yes sir." The Lieutenant saluted, then he and Lieutenant Reed ran across the open concrete toward the spaceship that sat silently fifty yards away. The Doctor watched until they'd climbed up into the ship and closed the hatch, then pulled out his key and opened the TARDIS door. "In," he said. "We don't want to be here when the backup arrives."
Rose was only too happy to comply. She stumbled in and over to the jump seat, where she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as the Doctor got the TARDIS moving. Once they were in flight, he came over to her, frowning. "You all right?"
"Fine. A little shaken up. Don't think I've ever been shot at before."
"Probably not, but there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"
The Doctor's dismissive tone was at odds with the twinkle in his eyes, and she couldn't help but laugh. He grinned and climbed onto the seat beside her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her tight into his side. She snuggled there.
"So does Elvis survive, then?" she asked.
"Oh, yes. The war rages on for another three years, but he survives just fine. And ten years later, he's elected to the Presidency. Under his influence, Congress not only balances the budget, but finishes paying off the deficit that had built up in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The value of the American dollar skyrockets until it's nearly on a par with the British pound, and he uses the budget surplus to finance the creation of third-world solar and wind power plants, as well as building factories for alternative-fuelled vehicles. And the year he dies, the base on Europa is finally established and the first extraterrestrial life is found in the water oceans that are beneath the ice crust. Just coral-like creatures, nothing intelligent, but it's a major moment in the history of the human race. All made possible by that one man."
Rose smiled against his coat. "It was worth getting shot at, then."
"Oh, yes. Especially as nobody was actually hit. But-" He pulled away slightly and grinned down at her. "You do realise we've seen the sinking of Atlantis and the return of Elvis, all on the same day!"
She smacked him lightly with the back of her hand, but couldn't help joining in his laughter.